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Metabolic and bariatric surgery: evolving indications

MBS has evolved from a last-resort intervention to an effective, evidence-based therapeutic modality for obesity and its related medical conditions. The contraindications of the past are the indications of the future.

Read more

Editor's Choice

Reassurance on anti-VEGF use during stroke or MI

People who experience stroke or myocardial infarction can continue to receive intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy without risking increased mortality or morbidity.

Tirzepatide boosts ixekizumab benefits in patients with PsA and obesity

Combining ixekizumab with tirzepatide offers additive clinical benefits over ixekizumab alone in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis in patients with overweight or obesity.

Switching to INSTIs increases diabetes risk in people with HIV

Switching people with HIV to an integrase strand transfer inhibitor from a protease inhibitor or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor is associated with an increased risk for diabetes.

Fear of hypoglycemia in youth with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers

FOH is an unsurprising occurrence in youth with T1D and their caregivers and can be a barrier to optimal self-management. This review provides an update of the FOH literature published from 2016 to 2025 for this population.

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Keynote webinar | Spotlight on the insulin toolkit for type 2 diabetes

Insulin remains key to the management of type 2 diabetes, but its role continues to evolve with the arrival of once-weekly regimens presenting new opportunities and challenges. Learn how once-weekly insulin therapy be implemented to optimize patient care.

Dr. Alice Cheng
Watch now
Video

Raising the standard: ensuring patient safety through minimum requirements for CGM performance

Prof. Chantal Mathieu highlights how the absence of rigorous performance standards for continuous glucose monitors in Europe contributes to wide variability in device accuracy, raising important concerns about patient safety.

Supported by:
  • Abbott Diabetes Care
Prof. Chantal Mathieu
Watch now
Video

Case Studies

Sparing muscle reduction in type 2 diabetes with SBMA

Semaglutide use in a man with type 2 diabetes and spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy treated with leuprorelin. Over 2 years glycemic parameters improved and fat mass reduced, with only a minor annual decrease in muscle mass.

ICI-induced fulminant type 1 diabetes

A case of fulminant type 1 diabetes in a woman on tislelizumab for lung adenocarcinoma highlights the need for proactive monitoring of fasting glucose, HbA1c, and islet function in people given an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Neurological complications of rapid weight loss

A 37-year-old woman developed acute encephalopathy and treatment-induced neuropathy of diabetes after 3 months of semaglutide use. Benefits of GLP-1 agonists outweigh the risks, but clinicians should be alert to potential sequelae.

Episode 24: Looking back at 2025

Advancing patient care

In this special edition of Medicine Matters, we're joined by Dr Gregory Lim, Claire Greenhill, and Sarah Onuora, Chief Editors of Nature Reviews Cardiology, Endocrinology, and Rheumatology, for a look back at the advances in their specialties in 2025.

Find out what caught their attention and why, and what they're looking forward to in 2026.

Gregory Lim
Claire Greenhill
Sarah Onuora
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Podcast

Current Reviews

Efficacy and safety of once-weekly IcoSema compared to active comparators in adults with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and comparator-stratified quantitative synthesis of randomized controlled trials

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a progressive metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction, often requiring stepwise intensification of therapy to maintain glycemic control [ 1 ]. While basal insulin and GLP-1 …

Genetic crosstalk at the non-coding frontier: miRNA SNPs connecting diabetes and psoriasis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are evolutionarily conserved, short (~ 22 nucleotides), non-coding RNA molecules that function as key post-transcriptional gene expression regulators. [ 1 ]. They perform their regulatory role by base-pairing with complementary …

An overview of the role of platelets in vascular disease associated with diabetes mellitus

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM). The present narrative review focuses on the crucial role of platelets in the development and progression …

Preventive Health Services in Reproductive-Aged Women with Diabetes Mellitus: A Scoping Review

Pre-existing type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) complicates roughly 1% of pregnancies in the United States (US), with consequences for both baby and mother 1 – 4 . The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that all women with DM, both …

Episode 19: GLP-1 medicines - past, present, and future

From diabetes to obesity and beyond

In 2005 the US FDA approved the first GLP-1 medicine for type 2 diabetes, marking the start of a remarkable journey that goes beyond the stimulation of insulin secretion.

Prof. Daniel Drucker gives us a fascinating insight into the early work on GLP-1 and discusses how these medicines are impacting the lives of people with diabetes and obesity. He covers what's known about how they work, treatment duration, side effects, and the role of bariatric surgery, plus what's in the pipeline in terms of drug development and the indications that GLP-1 medicines may be used to treat in the future.

Prof. Daniel Drucker
Listen now
Podcast

CME and eLearning

Integrating ketone and glucose monitoring for optimized diabetes management (Link opens in a new window)

1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)

Familiarize yourself with current and emerging ketone monitoring systems and the most useful clinical scenarios in which to use them through our podcasts and e-learning modules. Lower the barriers to effective prevention of diabetic ketoacidosis.

Independent Medical Education Grant:
  • Abbott
Video

Raising the standard: ensuring patient safety through minimum requirements for CGM performance

Prof. Chantal Mathieu highlights how the absence of rigorous performance standards for continuous glucose monitors in Europe contributes to wide variability in device accuracy, raising important concerns about patient safety.

Supported by:
  • Abbott Diabetes Care

Real-world application of CGM technology (Link opens in a new window)

1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)

Refine the application of CGM technology in primary care to enhance the management of type 2 diabetes. Benefit from key updates and experiential learning using CGM devices, and practice your clinical decision-making skills with real cases, vodcasts, and interactive infographics.

Independent Medical Education Grant:
  • Abbott

Further Reading

Cervical spinal cord enlargement and systemic inflammation in diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a cross-sectional MRI study

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder with a rapidly increasing global prevalence, with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) representing the vast majority of cases [ 1 ]. Among its microvascular complications, diabetic peripheral …

Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Escalating Once-Weekly Semaglutide from 0.5 to 1.0 mg in Type 2 Diabetes

The global prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), closely related to the parallel epidemic of obesity, is a substantial public health challenge [ 1 ]. The management of T2DM has evolved beyond glycemic control to a comprehensive strategy aimed at …

Decision analysis for the long-term effectiveness of a community-based intervention to prevent obesity: an EUREGIO project

Obesity has become one of the greatest public health challenges of the twenty-first century with a prevalence that has doubled in adults and quadrupled in adolescents since 1990 (WHO 2019 ). In 2022, 2.5 billion adults and 390 million children and …

Glomerular diseases in South African patients on kidney replacement therapy: an analysis of 2022 South African Renal Registry data

Kidney failure is a major public health problem affecting an estimated 844 million people worldwide and of those, 3.9 million are on kidney replacement therapy (KRT) [ 1 ]. Due to the lack of renal registries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there are …

Related topics

Metabolic and bariatric surgery: evolving indications

MBS has evolved from a last-resort intervention to an effective, evidence-based therapeutic modality for obesity and its related medical conditions. The contraindications of the past are the indications of the future.

Read more

Reassurance on anti-VEGF use during stroke or MI

People who experience stroke or myocardial infarction can continue to receive intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy without risking increased mortality or morbidity.

Read more

Fear of hypoglycemia in youth with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers

FOH is an unsurprising occurrence in youth with T1D and their caregivers and can be a barrier to optimal self-management. This review provides an update of the FOH literature published from 2016 to 2025 for this population.

Read more
Image Credits
Bariatric surgery/© subway84 / Stock.adobe.com, Vial and syringe needle/© Amornrat Phuchom / Getty Images / iStock, Woman receiving injection/© Antonio_Diaz / Getty Images / iStock (symbolic image with models), Alert symbol/© AlexSecret / Getty Images / iStock, Pediatrician speaking to an adolescent boy and his father/© bluecinema / Getty images / iStock (symbolic image with models), Insulin injection needles / pens/© digicomphoto / iStock / Getty Images Plus, Patient being prepared for eye surgery/© andresr / E+ / Getty (symbolic image with models), Heart model and ECG representation/© Nataliia_Trushchenko / Generated with AI / Stock.adobe.com, Elderly woman receiving injection with autoinjector/© recep-bg / E+ / Getty (symbolic image with models), Woman monitoring glucose level with sensor and an app on her phone while training at swimming pool/© (M) Goffkein, stock.adobe.com (symbolic image with model), Histological image of mammalian skeletal muscle/© sinhyu / Stock.adobe.com, Enhanced chest CT showing a solid lesion in the lower left lung/© 2026, Yuanzhen Feng et al, J Med Case Reports, Biopsy findings indicating severe axonal neuropathy after rapid weight loss from GLP-1 agonist use/© 2025, Ali Zahir et al, BMC Neurol, Medicine Matters Podcast promo image/© Springer Medizin GmbH, Person walking/© _KUBE_ / Stock.adobe.com, Question mark filled with pills/© narvo vexar / iStock / Getty Images Plus, Lab technician holding a blood sample/© angellodeco / stock.adobe.com (symbolic image with model), White pills in rows/© DIGICOMPHOTO/ Science Photo Library / Getty , EASD 2025: EASD clinical practice guideline: diabetes distress – Jane Speight, Richard Holt/© Springer Medicine, Integrating Ketone and Glucose Monitoring for Optimized Diabetes Management/© Springer Healthcare IME, Real-world application of CGM technology to improve diabetes management in primary care/© Springer Healthcare IME, Ketogenic foods and red dumbbell/© Sasithorn Phuapankasemsuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus, Incretin mimetic injectors/© aprott / Getty Images / iStock, 3D render of a red pause button on yellow background/© spawns / iStock / Getty Images Plus, Measurement of liver stiffness/© Casanowe / iStock / Getty Images Plus (symbolic image with models), Mental health conditions concept illustration/© Dragon Claws / Stock.adobe.com, Woman completing online survey/© Scandistock / E+ / Getty Images (symbolic image with model), Older man in wheelchair with an insulin pump/© Halfpoint / Stock.adobe.com (symbolic image with model), Premature baby with feeding tube/© Sergey Novikov / Stock.adobe.com (symbolic image with model)